Doris Ng is inspiring through her work

DORIS Ng is HR Business Partner at Huawei Technologies Jamaica Company Limited

AW: What was your first job?

Being a child of Asian immigrant parents, of course my first job, like so many, would be helping out in the family-owned business after classes and during summers.

However, my first official job after I had attained my bachelor’s degree at The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona was as a laboratory demonstrator at the biotechnology and the biomedical lab at UWI.

AW: What would you say is your best career achievement to date?

My best career achievement has been becoming a HR business partner at Huawei. Through this position, I can inspire not only my fellow colleagues at work, but I’ve been given the opportunity to inspire our local young talent to appreciate the ICT technologies and businesses through the launch of the Huawei Flagship Seeds for the Future programme and the Huawei internship programme. I believe that we need to inspire more young people to choose this career path and make them understand better the great opportunity it can provide. Such an approach will not only benefit the younger generation, but also Jamaica’s economy and society.

AW: When would you say you have worked the hardest?

Throughout my career in Huawei, I had been given various HR projects within the Caribbean that were outside of my expertise; including but not limited to developing and streamlining HR operation processes for the Caribbean; leading the recruitment of a new business team, and creating the talent mapping for the Caribbean. These projects didn’t feel like enriching opportunities when they were first delegated to me. They were not only challenging, but also laborious, time intensive, complicated, and overwhelmingly frustrating and stressful.

I am, however, grateful for those opportunities that had challenged me to stretch and grow. Looking back at my career path in Huawei, the first few years were filled with pain and setbacks. It’s easy to forget about the gruelling details and suffering one goes through during the moment, but when I look back at my past achievements, I am glad I had persevered, and I am so thankful for those experiences. In summary, although it may not be pleasant at the time, be it good times or rough times, all were passing moments; achievements, however, will always be with me as both a goal and as a source of strength, pride, and perseverance.

AW: Who and what are your biggest motivators?

My biggest motivators are my family and my past achievements. My family is my biggest source of inspiration and my strongest supporters as well. My parents are very hard-working individuals; it fills me with awe as I recall how my parents were willing to migrate to a foreign country thousands of miles away, where they did not even speak the local language, all to provide a better life for their children. Their dedication to hard work is what motivates me to be like them so I too can be a role model for my son.

Success is what motivates me to continue to perform my best. Knowing the fact that my hard work and perseverance will help me achieve greater professional success is what keeps me going. I feel that aligning the company’s vision and values with my own is one way to achieve that. When I know that my efforts are travelling the correct path, it encourages me to keep trudging.

AW: What is your advice to young women who are looking to pursue a career in your field?

Ladies, for those of you that are pursuing a career in the human resource management field or if you are looking to work in a global multi-cultural corporation, I present to you a few nuggets of wisdom:

1) Set a positive mindset at work, do not shun extra duties. Each extra task given to you is an opportunity for you to learn more; this is how experience is built and this is how mastery is attained. If you do more, you will naturally learn more! Experience is about events, not time.

2) Don’t be afraid of temporary setbacks or failures. Life is not about not getting hit, it’s about dusting yourself off and getting up to try again. Resilience is the key here; it’s not considered a failure if you haven’t stopped trying. True failure is not having the courage to try at all.

3) Spend time to study your company culture, embrace it and give back, remember, your company chose you because they believe you are a representation of their mission, values and company goals, so do what you can to support your company’s mission and vision! Make it a goal during your career to truly live out the mission through your actions.